US Announced Major Change In Travel Requirements For UK Tourists

The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has said, the travellers to the United States using the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) is going to be facing a price increase of 14 dollars per traveller from 7 dollars to 21 dollars.

The ESTA has been an automated system that is determining the eligibility of the visitors for travelling to the United States under the Visa waiver Program (VWP) and the authorization through the ESTA does not determine whether or not a traveller has been admissible to the United States.

The Department of Homeland Security of the United States said, 17 dollars from the increased fee is going to be funding the travel promotion for the United States and 4 dollars have been covering the cost of providing and administering the system.

The ESTA is also allowing the travellers from 40 countries, which are participating in the visa waiver programme for the purpose of entering the United States for stays of around 90 days without having to acquire a visa. The US Customs data has been showing the applications of ESTA have been slumped to just 1.2 million in 2021 from 6.3 million in the year 2020 and a 15.1 million high in the pre-pandemic year 2019.

A same scheme is soon going to be taking place in the European Union and travellers from the United Kingdom is going to have to pay a fee for a European Travel Information and Authorization System.